Suggests that in learning and development, the process of comparison can act as a bridge between similarity-based and rule-based processing. A structure-sensitive comparison process, triggered by experiential or symbolic juxtapositions can: (1) facilitate understanding of structural commonalities and the abstraction of rules; and (2) facilitate…

Considers assumptions underlying current cognitive science research on concepts: (1) novel information is first processed via similarity judgments and later by explanatory components; (2) children initially have a similarity-based component for learning concepts--the explanatory component develops on its foundation. Argues that these assumptions…

Details findings indicating that most early linguistic competence is item based. Maintains that language development proceeds without evidence of system-wide syntactic categories, schemas, or parameters. Suggests that findings are not easily explained by the development of children's skills of linguistic performance, pragmatics, or other external…

Compares the many-perspectives account of lexical acquisition--which proposes that children learn to take alternative perspectives along with the words they acquire--to the one-perspective account--which proposes that children are at first able to use only one term to talk about an object or event. Provides evidence from a variety of sources that…

Recent work suggests that infants rely on mechanisms of object-based attention and short-term memory to represent small numbers of objects. Such work shows that infants discriminate arrays containing 1, 2, or 3 objects, but fail with arrays greater than 3 [Feigenson, L., & Carey, S. (2003). Tracking individuals via object-files: Evidence from…

Examines evidence that the research community studying infants' object concept and the community concerned with adult object-based attention have been studying the same natural kind. Maintains that the discovery that the object representations of young infants are the same as the object files of mid-level visual cognition has implications for both…

Summarizes findings on infants' capacity for object segregation. Maintains that infants can use featural and experiential information for segregation and individuation purposes long before 12 months of age. Disputes the claim that formation of object categories awaits early word learning, but acknowledges that language may play a key role in…

Piaget's theory of space perception is presented in the format of a hypothetico-deductive system. Eleven hypotheses regarding infants' space perception are defined, and Piaget's evidence for each is summarized. Presuppositions underlying the arguments are explicated. Critical notes are inserted and general conclusions are briefly discussed.…